Page 31 of Land of Monsters

What if she was already on her way home? Appalled by what happened last night, she called her family and slipped out without a goodbye? Dread fogged my mind, filling my lungs. My legs took off, not thinking past the panic consuming me.

She left you. She left you.It looped in my head as I tore out of the door, feeling out of control.

The cold air smacked my skin, billowing clouds from my mouth. The sun was hazy, denying us any real warmth from its rays.

“Raven?” I called her name, hoping she had stepped outside for air. The cramped street was vacant of the partiers and drunks from last night, but remnants of the debauchery scattered the passage. A mist of cold air blocked some of the putrid smell of vomit and piss. “Raven?”

For once, the silence unsettled me, jarring my nerves. It was like I could feel she wasn’t here, an emptiness I could sense.

She left you. She left you. She left you.

Sprinting down the lane, I had no real idea where I was running to, but desperation took hold, steering me toward something.

Every lane I hooked around sat vacant, invoking stronger emotions. They strangled my throat, pounded against my ribs, and hazed my mind.

Weaving through the streets, I came out onto the main square, condensation puffing out like smoke, my nose and ears burning with cold. My pulse pounded in my ears as I scanned the space. Only a handful of people were up, milling around,lingering close to the stands with coffee and baked goods. The plaza was trashed with alcohol bottles, clothes, streamers, and garbage. Remains of the festivities.

Scanning every figure, panic almost choked me when none of them were her.

She left you. She really left you.

It was what I wanted. What I had asked of her over and over since she walked into my life. I was going to make her leave today anyway. Yet, my heart accelerated at the thought that she did, my lungs not able to catch enough air. The sensation of wanting to tear out of my skin had me prancing in place, circling around.

In that moment, everything was stripped down to the raw truth. I didn’t want her to go. Along the way, I had grown used to her being next to me. Needed it now.

A cold sweat beaded at the back of my neck, deep panic almost turning me to stone.

Abandonment.

Their choice or not, people continuously left me. My parents, sister, Kek and Lukas, even Warwick when he went to prison for years, and Kitty when our relationship fell apart. It was all I had ever known. But Raven leaving snapped something in me, darkness flooding into my chest, drowning me like I would never see light again.

A strangled noise hissed through my teeth. I struggled with knowing what to do—and understood I’d be too late anyway.

“Raven,” I grunted out, hearing the desperation, the pleading in my tone.

A petite girl I hadn’t seen, hidden by a stocky man in line, stepped away from the stand with two coffees in her hands. My heart stopped in my chest, my eyes going over the figure, hope surging up my throat. Even bundled in clothing, hood up, andfar away, I still knew every inch. Recognized her aura like it was my own. My body sprang to life, realizing she was close.

“Gods…” A heaved exhale broke from me, almost curving me over. Relief knotted emotion in my throat, mixing between grief and bliss.

She didn’t leave.

Taking in a breath, I tried to calm my heart. My mouth parted, about to call her name across the large square, but her head lifted like I had already spoken, hearing me without saying a word. This far away, I couldn’t even make out the details of her face, but I didn’t need to. I felt her looking back at me. Sensed her on my skin.

And then the moment shattered.

Squealing tires impaled the quiet morning air. Two army jeeps filled with soldiers came screeching into the square right next to the coffee stand. They leaped out, their shouts booming with authority, startling everyone around like birds.

“Mainile sus!” Hands up!Armed, the eight men quickly surrounded Raven, their weapons pointed at her, their movements twitchy and unpredictable.

Everything happened so fast.

Coffee slipped from her hands as they grabbed her, splashing out onto the cold cobblestone, steam rising around her. Two red flames flashed through the mist, the power of her beast instinctually coming to the surface, ready to attack. It vanished as fast as it came. Raven dropped to her knees before a guard, a manacle around her wrist, the goblin metal ripping the fae magic from her. Raven’s mouth started to move, though I knew her obscurer wouldn’t be nearly as powerful now. Her magic was intertwined together, not separate. They were half of what they were without the other.

Her name surged up my chest, my legs lurching forward when a guard came from behind her, his baton striking across her head, her body slipping to the ground, unconscious.

“Raven!” Terror knifed through my lungs. I felt a sensation of being out of my body as I ran for her, not caring what happened to me. I needed to protect her.

My untied shoelaces caught underfoot, a cry spitting from my mouth. My body sailed forward, my palms grating across the rough stone surface. I slammed into the ground, the bag buffering my dick, but my chin, knee and chest hit hard, my clothes and skin tearing. The impact knocked the breath out of me, paralyzing me on the ground, gasping for air.

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